The State Duma has adopted a bill in the second and third readings that will legalize cryptocurrency mining activities in Russia from November 1, 2024, writes TASS. Bill No. 237585-8 was introduced to parliament back in November 2022 by a group of deputies headed by the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets Anatoly Aksakov, and in April 2024 its revised version was introduced.
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Requirements for the activities of individuals and legal entities mining digital currency will be established by the Russian government in agreement with the Bank of Russia. Control over the implementation of these requirements is assigned to the Ministry of Digital Development. The government also has the right to impose a ban on mining in individual regions or in their individual territories.
Only Russian legal entities and individual entrepreneurs included in the relevant register, which will be maintained by the Ministry of Digital Development, will have the right to engage in mining. Individuals will be able to mine digital currency without being included in the register if energy consumption does not exceed the limits set by the Russian government.
Miners will be required to provide information about the digital currency they have mined and about the address-identifiers to the government-authorized body, which will transmit this data to Rosfinmonitoring and the Bank of Russia. Rosfinmonitoring is also required to maintain a list of address-identifiers that raise suspicions of possible use for money laundering or terrorist financing, as well as other criminal activities.
Instead of the ban on the organization of circulation in Russia of currency obtained as a result of mining, adopted in the first reading, in the second reading a ban on the offer of cryptocurrencies was adopted: “In the Russian Federation, it is prohibited to offer digital currency, as well as goods (works, services) to an unlimited number of persons for the purpose of organizing the circulation and (or) circulation of digital currency.” The law also prohibits advertising digital currency and goods (works, services) for the purpose of organizing its circulation.
The law specifies a list of individuals and enterprises that are prohibited from mining. These include individuals who are sole proprietors and who have an unexpunged or unexpunged conviction for economic crimes and other crimes, as well as individuals included in the list of organizations and individuals involved in extremist activity or terrorism, as well as those in respect of whom a decision has been made to freeze (block) funds or other property. This list also includes legal entities that have such individuals among their founders (participants), beneficiaries and managers.
Legal entities and individual entrepreneurs are also prohibited from combining mining with activities related to the transmission of electricity, operational dispatch control in the electric power industry, production or purchase and sale of electricity.
The law allows trading of foreign digital financial assets (DFA) on Russian blockchain platforms, and also simplifies the integration of Russian DFA with foreign systems.
The law will come into force 10 days after its official publication. Most of the mining regulations will come into force on November 1, 2024.
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